At 6, I Promised My Best Friend We’d Go to Prom Together — 12 Years Later, Mom Said I Could Go With Him Only on ONE Condition Ethan became my best friend in first grade after we discovered we both hated raisins and loved dinosaurs.

TWELVE YEARS PASSED

Somehow—

we stayed best friends.

We weren’t attached every second.

Different classes.

Different interests.

Different friends.

Ethan became obsessed with baseball.

I became obsessed with art.

He tried teaching me batting averages.

I dragged him through museums.

Neither of us successfully converted the other.

Then, when we were twelve—

my parents divorced.

That was the year everything in our house became quieter.

Dad moved into an apartment across Bellmere.